When flat textile materials are needled, especially nonwovens, it is desirable to achieve the most uniform possible needling without the formation of patterns in the flat textile material. It has been found advantageous for this purpose for rows of needles to be arranged in a herringbone pattern and not simply to extend in rows and columns in the longitudinal and transverse directions of the needle board. Nevertheless, stripes or patternings still occur in the needled flat textile material, especially at high feed-per-stroke ratios.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a needle board for use in a needling machine for needling a flat textile material of which a uniformly needled flat textile material is obtained even at high feed-per-stroke ratios or over a wider feed range of the needling machine.